Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley on Wednesday opened the door to holding a second hearing after a third woman accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of mistreating women, and being in the room when she was gang-raped.
“We’re going to take this step-by-step, and you’ll have to ask me that question Thursday night,” Grassley told reporters about the possibility of a second hearing.
The Iowa Republican said the hearing scheduled Thursday to hear from Kavanaugh’s first accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, will continue as planned.
“The committee meeting is going to go ahead because I don’t feel that we should disadvantage Dr. Ford any more than she’s already being disadvantaged in the sense of people wondering whether the hearing was going to be last week or this week or whatever else,” Grassley said.
[Opinion: With latest Kavanaugh allegations, Senate must hear more testimony]
His comments came shortly after lawyer Michael Avenatti revealed allegations by Julie Swetnick, who alleged that Kavanaugh took part in multiple instances of sexual misconduct in the early 1980s. Her affidavit was signed under the penalty of perjury.
Grassley said that despite Avenatti’s presence, Swetnick’s allegations are the main focus of the committee as they review her claims.
“We are proceeding the same way we’ve been proceeding since the Washington Post story. Every time there’s been accusations made, we’ve tried to follow up where we can get a contact,” Grassley said. “So obviously this morning, we have this contact and our investigators are on it immediately.”
“I suppose I’m supposed to be up on every lawyer that’s involved here, and I only know him as what I read in the paper. I haven’t even gone to Google to learn more about him. It seems to me he wants to protect people that are involved in pornography and that he’s running for president,” Grassley continued. “I don’t know what his motivations are. I don’t know what his reputation as a lawyer is, so how can I draw any conclusions? But really what’s important here isn’t the lawyer. The important is the claim that she’s been harmed.”
[More: Kavanaugh disputes third allegation: ‘Ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone’]
